the creative way

what I said… 

The world of tomorrow is not about being able to do one job. already, you must have multiple skills and you must be willing to retrain yourself to use a completely different toolset. If you read a typical craiglist job title the candidate must have the knowledge of many different practices: coding, art skills, design sense, organization, photography, editing movies, making sound scapes with the ability to write.

If you look at the past, you find that same job would have been filled with 3 or 4 people. Today being mono-skilled means that you will get passed over more often then not. even if you have a great portfolio.

To be an artist means that you, the student, have to be prepared to live like an artist. It’s a lifestyle. Don’t expect a 6 figure job. You won’t to make $50 an hour. It’s feast or famine. The hours are long and the clients (spelled c-h-a-n-g-e) are mean.

You have to have the mindset that you are hands are doing work for other people. You don’t get to be creative. Even if what you are asked to do will make the story suck. Your input will get ignored or it won’t count. You don’t get a say.

That being said there is one thing you need to know. The internet. It’s the leveling place. Learn it, know it, embrace it. It is your future. It’s there for the taking. It’s a place where your movie, your art, can find its audience. Or your t-shirt can get purchased. 

Start something there. Don’t wait for a job. In fact pretend there isn’t going to be a job and create your own. Do it while you are in school. While you have infinite time and mad talent all around you. And while you parents are funding it.

Your “art” degree is meaningless anyway. Why? Because you are expecting a piece of paper to be the notification to the world that you are an artist. But unless you start saying “I am an Artist” right now then you aren’t one. Don’t wait for “permissions granted” by some paper with a gold star and a administrator’s signature to enable you. You have my permission to be an artist. Right now! Everyone… repeat after me: “I AM AN ARTIST!”

wait….

Pathetic. This is why 90% have already failed. You don’t believe in yourself. You don’t hold in you that you are what you want to be. If that isn’t in you not me, your teachers or your friends can help you. You might as well save everyone’s time by packing it up, cashing in, trading your paint brush and pencil for a pancake flipper.

Now… one more time: “I AM AN ARTIST!”